‘Bravery, sacrifice and heroism’

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This article was published 13/09/2021 (1709 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOISSEVAIN — Canadians and Americans gathered at the International Peace Garden Saturday to commemorate those who died 20 years ago in the deadliest terror attacks on U.S. soil.

A crowd of around 100 people assembled at the International Peace Garden 9/11 Memorial Site to honour the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when four hijacked planes crashed in New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

It was an emotional experience honouring the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, said International Peace Garden president Dorothy Dobbie.

“9/11 touched so many people in such a personal way. Even though we might have been 1,000 miles away, we knew somebody or we had someone experience something that had to do with it. Someone died, someone was hurt, someone came to the rescue,” Dobbie said.

Among the event’s speakers was interim Premier Kelvin Goertzen.

“While this day will always be a solemn anniversary as we remember the nearly 3, 000 lives lost, including 24 Canadians, it is also a day to honour the bravery, sacrifice and heroism of first responders and military personnel then and today, and the compassion of everyday people to help their neighbour in times of great need,” Goertzen said. “This morning, I am pleased to join representatives from both the United States and Canada at a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial Site at the International Peace Gardens to honour the lives tragically lost, commemorate our long-standing positive relationship between our nations, and reaffirm our commitment of international cooperation and peace.”

The commemoration was a powerful experience, Dobbie said, as the International Peace Garden contains the only ruins from the World Trade Centre twin towers in Canada. Created out of steel remnants from the collapsed towers, the remains were placed in the garden in 2002 to ensure the tragedy would not be lost and to remind visitors to cherish tolerance, understanding and freedom.

Sept. 11 is an important day to focus on inclusion and peace, Dobbie said. The 9/11 commemoration emphasizes the humanity of people and recognizes the important place each person holds in the world.

“What makes us different makes us strong,” Dobbie said. “I’m a gardener and that’s the first lesson of horticulture: you need diversity. You need to have varieties, otherwise, your plant can die out. It’s the same thing with people. We need each other and we need to be different, but we need to understand our similarities at the same time.”

Dobbie said the conversations surrounding the terrorist attack are changing as youth born after 9/11 are now helping to carry forward the remembrance of loss and tragedy. They have learned about the attack in school, Dobbie said, while also having had the chance to hear first-hand stories of Sept. 11 during the Peace Garden Memorial.

“I think we pass those things on to our children,” Dobbie said. “When there is trauma, it is intergenerational.”

She was grateful to see so many young people in attendance, including the Bottineau School Choir Vocal Ease singing the anthems and the song Wanting Memories to honour the solemn occasion.

Grade 12 students Regan James, 17, and Nicolas Loberg, 17, were on hand to honour the event with their school choir.

It was a bittersweet performance commemorating 9/11, Loberg said.

“You always have that sad factor that comes from hearing about tragedies like this. We’ve grown up learning about 9/11,” he said. “We weren’t alive when it happened … In school, we always learn about the 9/11 tragedies and we always heard about the war in Afghanistan. Getting to hear lots of the first-person experience was different.”

Performing at the garden was an important experience, he explained, because he had never heard anyone aside from his parents talk about what they were doing the day of the tragedy. It was eye-opening learning about the terrorist attack from Canadian and American figures sharing their stories and memories.

“The best thing you can do to teach the younger generations how to prevent something like this from happening again and also to really memorialize an event, is by telling them where you were and what you were feeling and how things went and how things were handled after,” Loberg said. “As long as these memorials keep happening every single year, I think that the memory will live on forever.”

James added it was a compelling experience seeing the beams rescued from the fallen Twin Towers, driving home the brutality of the attack. She added she appreciated seeing Canadians and Americans come together to honour the solemn event.

“We’re making sure we remember those … who we lost not only in the 9/11 tragedy but in the events that led after … And those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us and our country,” Loberg said.

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